Your best bet is to consult a structural engineer.In Georgia, we'd just header the wall off.

I bet @nick @Nick Keesee might have some thoughts on this 

You can absolutely bet you will hit a bad patch of vacancy and or repairs.

As others have said, I'd bet that he's referring to $1,300/month gross rents, not Cashflow.

If you could save maybe $5,000, I'll bet an oatmeal raisin cookie you could find a seller who might seller finance.

Owner equity and owner financing is your best bet right now.  

Your best bet is PC Richards or a small mom and pop place you might have a relationship with.

You can read the local obituary column in your local paper, and compare the names to the property ownership records at the tax assessor's site, or the same work is done for you by [email protected], which is the service I use. 

First issue is that they are not trained to the level I would require to bet thousands of dollars on, secondly I would never trust the assessment of value supplied by a seller.

Here's the article: http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/06/mapping_the_...My bets are on West Adams, Echo Park, Park Hills Heights, and Downtown, all of which are currently in the midst of gentrification and are primed to take off with the expansion of the metro.